Which watercooler for this?

[the other paul]

Hi,
I'm about to start my first big mod, installing a watercooling system.
Unfortunately I have no experience with watercooling, so any advice or
suggestions that anyone here can give me would be much appreciated.

My current system is this:

AMD Athlon 1800+
Abit KD7 M/Board
256Mb PC2100 unbranded memory
GF4-Ti4700 (Winfast A250 Ultra) Graphics card
Maxtor 40Gb 5400rpm H/Disk

I'm planning on putting the whole thing in a custom wooden case lined
with soundproofing so I'm looking for something that will keep it
realy cool. Just to make things more difficult, all of the parts are
old, out-of-warranty refurbs so I don't want to take any chances
overheating them, and I plan on using this computer for long periods
of time (like setting it up for overnight downloads). I don't intend
to do any serious overclocking, but I probably will upgrade the memory
and/or cpu later.

I've done some research already, and thought about using an Ehiem 1048
pump, Maze4 AMD waterblock, and either a Thermochill HE120.2 or a car
radiator. Adding the estimated cost of a good GPU waterblock, silent
fans, tubing and water additives this is only just about within my
budget.

This morning though, I found the Stormcool kit from
www.watercoolingshop.com, a pre-built kit with blocks for the CPU and
GPU, for £79.99. I think I might go with this if it would do the job
well enough. I don't like the small resevoir, or difficulty to
upgrade, but the convinience of having a system that hooks up to the
PSU (not to mention the price) is appealing.

I guess my main question is what system would you go for? I also have
a few other questions:

CUSTOM
------
How practical is using a car radiator? would it work any better than a
computer rad? is it worth it?

The system that I had planned to use includes components from
different manufacturers, do you think this would cause problems with
flow rates or corrosion?

What GPU waterblock would you reccomend for use with the A250 Ultra?
I'm a little paranoid about burning out the memory while the GPU is
kept cool.

STORMCOOL
---------
Would this be sufficient?
As of yet I've only seen test results for the CPU only setup, if there
were no problems involved with adding a second radiator between the
CPU and graphics card I think I'd do that, but from the sound of it
the tubing is very difficult to remove and the pump isn't very
powerfull.


Well, this post is much longer than I thought it would be. If you have
any general advice about watercooling (including suggestions for
coolant mixtures), I'd be gratefull for any information.

Thanks in advance.

 

[T Shadow]

computer rad? is it worth it?

A heater core would be bigger than you would need.

 

[GW De Lacey]

CUSTOM

Do the sums: small car engine generates 80-100 kilowatts of heat, a
CPU and PSU combined with a few other peripherals would be hard pushed
to generate half a kilowatt. In short, and if there are no set-up
issues (no ventilation being the main one), a car radiator is a huge
overkill. Of course, if you can get one cheap (like, for free), and
have plenty of room, then it will do the job admirably. There are
better alternatives though.

The system that I had planned to use includes components from
different manufacturers, do you think this would cause problems with
flow rates or corrosion?

Half inch pipes and tubes, and automotive corrosion inhibitor in the
water will put paid to any fears you might have here.

What GPU waterblock would you reccomend for use with the A250 Ultra?
I'm a little paranoid about burning out the memory while the GPU is
kept cool.

I'll leave that one for the experts. A good thermal connection between
the chip and the water block is essential though, same as with an
air-cooled heat sink.